Fox Earns 6.4/10 Overnight Rating For NLCS Game Four

Fox Earns 6.4/10 Overnight For Mets-Cardinals NLCS Game Four

Fox earned a 6.4/10 overnight Nielsen rating for Mets- Cardinals NLCS Game Four from 8:30-11:30pm ET Sunday night, down 29.7% from a 9.1/14 for the White Sox-Angels decisive Game Five last year. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” up against Mets-Cardinals, earned an 8.1/12 overnight for Raiders-Broncos, down 23.6% from the comparable 10.6/16 for the Rams-Colts “MNF” game last year on ABC. The 8.1/12 is the lowest “SNF” rating so far this season.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY:Fox drew a 5.6/10 for Mets-Cardinals Game Three Saturday night, down 13.8% from a 6.5/11 for White Sox-Angels Game Four last year. Fox drew a 5.9/13 for A’s Tigers ALCS Game Four beginning at 4:30pm on Saturday, up 34.1% from a 4.4/9 for Cardinals-Astros Game Three last year. Cardinals-Mets Game Two on Friday from 8:15pm-12:00am earned a 7.2/13 on Fox, down 6.5% from a 7.7/13 for White Sox-Angels Game Three. A’s-Tigers Game Three on Fox from 4:30-7:30pm on Friday earned a 4.2/10; there was no game in the similar time slot last year (THE DAILY).

OLD HAT: The 31.5 market rating in St. Louis for Cardinals-Mets Game One was down 21% from a 40.1 for Astros-Cardinals Game One last year and down 15% from the 37.1 for Cardinals-Astros Game One in ’04. It was the second-lowest NLCS opener for the Cardinals in the six times they have played in the series in the last 11 seasons. The only lower figure was a 29.3 for Cardinals-Giants Game One in ’02 (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/14).

ANCHOR STEAM: WSVN-Fox in Miami did not air ALCS Game Three on Friday afternoon “because it did not want to preempt its early evening newscasts.” The game instead aired on Sun Sports, which is owned by Fox. A Fox spokesperson said that affiliates “have the right to decide what programs they carry,” and WSVN was the “only Fox affiliate that did not carry the game” (MIAMI HERALD, 10/14). ALCS Game Three was originally scheduled for primetime, but was moved to 4:30 when the NLCS was rescheduled after Game One was rained out (THE DAILY).

GUEST BOOK: In N.Y., Bob Raissman writes MLBer Luis Gonzalez, who joined Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the Fox booth for the NLCS and “came highly touted, was mediocre — and that’s being kind.” He “stated the obvious,” was “confusing” and “elected not to counter some of McCarver’s questionable analysis” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/15). D’Backs CF Eric Byrnes, who served as a guest analyst for ESPN’s LDS coverage, joined the Fox studio this weekend. White Sox C A.J. Pierzynski is also in the Fox studio (THE DAILY).